I have the original Dunlop PT's on my bike, over 6K miles and they really don't seem to show much wear. The only issue I have is a very slow air loss in the back tire. I have to do the soapy water test to see if its the stem or not. My question is what tire is more performance oriented? Past experience would lead me to believe a tire that tends to wear faster is prone to grip the road better but not great in the wet weather. I ride in the rain so where is the happy medium?
Like you I came from rice, had some for dinner, anyway I bought my first HD and rode it with the stock Dunlops. After about 2 or 3K miles i was compairing the handling with some friends. My issues were put to rest with changing to the ME880. I got 10K on my first rear (still on the bike when I sold it) and 11.5 on the second and had 9k+ on the one I replaced to make my trade in. It was an 04 with 100 Tq and 98 HP. In my humble opinion when a tire hooks up it doesn't loose as much tread as one that breaks loose because it is too hard. So the softer tire launches better and delivers 10K + miles is ok in my book and on my bike. I spoke with someone this weekend that just bought his first set, I just met him, he said he wishes he would have changed them much sooner.
If you have read this post you will know that I discovered that HD is using 2 different tread designs, 1 for the front and 1 for the rear. My biggest complaint was wet pavement and grooved pavement and grated bridges. If the front tread is gripping the road different than the rear, it now makes sense to me why the bike feels unstable under these conditions. Also the stock front tread locks water in.
I Had stock tires on my current bike until last month, I had them changed with only 2500 miles on them. During that 2500 miles I did not feel comfortable. Now on this last trip to FB I was dragging my boots and boards and never felt unstable on the ME880s. I am cheap but I will never take delivery of another bike with the current stock tires.
Ask anyone from the Fort Bragg run how I ride, I don't spare the rear or slack in the corners and I will get 10K plus on this tire. When I changed the one with 11.5K it just got to the wear indicator.
Good luck with your choice,
My choice ME880s
http://www.us.metzelermoto.com/en_85/tires/template_categorie.jhtml?catid=85SPCC&productid=16143&product_list=catid%3D85SPCC%26productid%3D16143IronButt
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Topic: tires (Read 4801 times)